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Fricassee of Chickens the Venetian Way

A chicken fricassee cooked with butter, onion, carrots, broth, wine, and flour, finished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Fricassee of Chickens the Venetian Way

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the base

  1. In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the onion and carrots, sauté until softened.

  3. Add the chicken pieces, browning them on all sides.

  4. Sprinkle flour over the chicken, stirring to coat.

Simmer and serve

  1. Pour in the chicken broth and white wine, season with salt and pepper.

  2. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes until chicken is cooked through.

  3. Garnish with chopped parsley before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main protein, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks through.
Butter
Adds fat and rich flavor, and helps the chicken and vegetables brown in the pot.
Flour
Coats the chicken and thickens the cooking liquid into a light sauce.
Chicken broth
Forms the moist cooking liquid that gently cooks the chicken and builds the sauce.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sauce as it simmers.
Onion
Softens and adds sweetness and savory depth to the sauce base.

The step that matters

Browning the chicken on all sides. Searing creates browned flavor through the Maillard reaction. Crowding the pot or skipping the sear makes the chicken steam, leaving the sauce pale and less flavorful.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, carrot, white wine, flour, pepper, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, carrot, white wine, flour, pepper, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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